Occupation - Started off as a librarian. Textile artist for pleasure (presently in remission). Various small business adventures. Currently keeper of books in the family business.

Location - Moray Scotland

What do you write? – short stories, poems

What are your current writing goals? – to write more and maybe even a novel

When and why did you start writing? – in my head forever – on paper age fifteen

What's your best piece of writing advice? – write for yourself – if you don’t like it neither will anyone else

What three luxuries would you take with you to a desert island? – solar powered laptop with internet, drawing/ painting materials, family photographs

What are your Top 5 (sorry more than 5 in some categories) Favourite:
Films – The Cat People/ Avatar/ Dr Strangelove/ Pans Labyrinth/ The Piano/ The Lives of Others/ Picnic at Hanging Rock/ Chocolat/ The Draftsman’s Contract
Books – Alias Grace by Margaret Attwood/ The Inhabited Woman by Gioconda Belli/ Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt/ The Dark Twin by Marion Campbell/ Under the Skin by Michel Faber/ Poor Things by Alistair Gray/ Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbons/ The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch/ Cold Skin by Albert Sanchez Pinol/ Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Zafon
Foods – Scottish strawberries/ new potatoes/ champagne/ fresh salad/ homemade chicken soup
Places – North Uist/ Orkney/ old European cities/ Savannah, Georgia/ walks in the Scottish countryside

Current writing goals: To get a good body of work in my portfolio and to submit more stuff for (possible) publication. Also, I have a semi-autobiographical novel in preparation (which shows signs of turning into a trilogy!)

When and why did you start: Angst-ridden poetry at school, being my only successful mode of communication at the time.

Best piece of advice: I wouldn’t presume to advise anyone else. We all come from different places and have different methods and goals.

Three desert island luxuries: laptop and broadband; a machine for making decent cappuccino; a bottle of Cragganmore whisky

Animal: some sort of faithful hound
Plant: ? one of those wind-blown rowan trees just about clinging on to life.
Furniture: something practical like a three-legged stool
Clothing: ditto, a fleece jacket?

Forum moniker
LAnthony
Real name
Lance Heard
Age
49
Occupation
College Professor
Location
Covina Ca
What do you write?
Mystery
What are your current writing goals?
To write and publish my first novel
When and why did you start writing?
I started writing a few years ago in a fiction writers workshop
What's your best piece of writing advice?
Write and re-write practice makes perfect.
What three luxuries would you take with you to a desert island?
A yacht. Every episode of Gilligan's Island. A deep well drill.
What are your Top 5 Favourite:
Films
1. Blade Runner. 2. The Thomas Crown Affair (99). 3. St. Elmo's Fire. 4. Raiders of the Lost Ark. 5. Tootsie
Books
1) Lord of the Rings 2) The Shack 3) The Time Travelers Wife 4) Up Country 5) Planet of the Apes
Foods
1) Hershey's chocolate 2) Bacon and egg sandwich 3) crab and egg sandwich 4) egg salad sandwich 5) Anything as long is it doesn't have any eggs in it!
Places?
1. Down stage and to the left 2. Bed 3. Work 4. terra firma 5. Beside my sweetheart
(the above list not necessarily in order of preference)
Which
a) animal
b) plant
c) piece of furniture
and d) piece of clothing
is most like you?
B) crab grass

Occupation
Retired now. Have been: school teacher; university and college lecturer; computer consultant; university librarian; salesman; business proprietor

Location
Armadale, Western Australia -- there are at least 2 other Armidales/Armadale in Oz, so I have to be specific

What do you write?
Long fiction, usually around 100,000 words. I have not yet tried to have these published. In the past plots have included plenty of gore, guts, and sex. The usual things.

Currently I am experimenting with changing a work in progress to a young adult novel. It's being an interesting challenge.

What are your current writing goals?
To learn enough about young adult literature to turn my current novel into the best young adult story -- and then to perhaps try to have it published.

When and why did you start writing?
I've been involved with writing most of my adult life, first with non-fiction presentations and proposals. About 35 years ago, I started dabbling with fiction.

What's your best piece of writing advice?
Be flexible; be prepared to change; accept constructive criticsm; and keep at it until you finish.

What are your Top 5 Favourite:Books
Any written by: John Marsden, Karen Robards, Stieg Larsson, PC and Kristen Cast, James Patterson

Places?Country Australia; San Francisco; Montreal; London; Singapore

Which
a) animal: cat
b) plant: orchids
c) piece of furniture: my comfortable recliner
and d) piece of clothing: my well-worn jacket
is most like you?_________________Life's too short to take it seriously

What do you write? Started with nonfiction (memoir), then micro-fiction (this still kicks my butt), short fiction pieces, nonfiction disguised as fiction (covering my butt), and its and bits of poetry (mostly cringe-worthy, but I’m persistent).

What are your current writing goals? To finish my memoir, get kick-ass good at fiction, publish all of it somewhere, anywhere. Find a good home for my recently finished sci-fi novella “Monsters Under the Bed.”

When and why did you start writing? 2007; was outrageously bored one afternoon at the law office when my boss was in court and started playing around with snips of my former childhood/adolescence. A floodgate opened and I was hooked. Though, a friend pointed out that I’d been writing stories as long as she’d known me (30 years) and she produced two sad, sad offerings from when we worked together at the State to prove this.

Mortified, shortly after I enrolled in Long Ridge Writers Group.

What's your best piece of writing advice? Do yourself and your readers an enormous favor: read at least one book on the craft of writing.

What three luxuries would you take with you to a desert island? Yeah, I do badly with this sort of question. Next please…

What are your Top 5 Favourite:
Films: Impossible to answer.
Books: Impossible again. I like an eclectic mix.
Foods: I could do Top 20, but then I’d come off as an uncontrollable pig.
Places?: Haven’t been out of the US, so I pass on this as well. Yes, I’m dreadfully boring. Though, where I have traveled, I’ve enjoyed each location to the fullest extent allowed by law.

Which
a) animal: Not big on animals, what with my many, many dead pet bird history.
b) plant: Orchid - not overly interesting until it surprises with blooms.
c) piece of furniture: Pool table - just another home ornamentation unless you know how to play it correctly.
and d) piece of clothing
is most like you? Classic black sweater - the one I own with ornate, hidden lining._________________Featured Author bio: https://sites.google.com/site/unmaskingmswizard/featured-authors/wanda-morrow-clevenger

When and why did you start writing? I've made up stories my whole life, but I only started writing them down about four years ago.

What's your best piece of writing advice? ‘Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you’ve been to college.’ Kurt Vonnegut (1922 – 2007), A Man without a Country

What three luxuries would you take with you to a desert island? Jack Sparrow, Han Solo and Malcolm Reynolds

What are your Top 5 Favourite:

Films Star Wars (Episode IV), Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, Serenity, So I Married and Axe Murderer, Toy Story

Books Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K Dick, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, Saturday by Ian McEwan, The Color Purple by Alice Walker, I Robot by Isaac Asimov

What do you write? - mostly speculative fiction, some light essays, and whatever pays

What are your current writing goals? - publish 10 short stories this year

When and why did you start writing? - I've been telling stories all my life, but I only started taking writing seriously a few years ago, after throwing a book down, shouting "Aw c'mon! I can write better than this!"

What's your best piece of writing advice? - Give yourself permission to write badly. Quality control just gets in the way.

What three luxuries would you take with you to a desert island? - Do I really have to go? All my stuff's here...

What are your Top 5 Favourite:

Films -
Casablanca, Star Wars (the one we all called Star Wars when if first came out), It's a Wonderful Life, Metropolis, Robin Hood (Errol Flynn)

Books -
Farmer Giles of Ham by JRR Tolkien, Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, 1884 by George Orwell, On Writing by Stephen King, Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss

Foods -
Not sure I can narrow it down to 5, but I can assure you that they all come from things that used to walk.

Places-
Home (current) especially in a warm bed or in front of a warm fire
Home (my parents' place)
Grandma's house - I spent a lot of time there growing up
Car - no thanks, I'll drive.
Out - that oughta cover it.

Which
a) animal -
Bear (pronouced "bahr") - definitely prone to hybernation and I enjoy a good scratch.

d) piece of clothing
Remember that outfit that looked so great the first time you wore it, but then you noticed that it was dryclean only, so it's permanent home is now the bottom of the hamper? I'm a bit like that.
Or maybe I'm more of a mitten.